A team of researchers, co-led by a University of California, Riverside professor, has found a long-sought-after mechanism in human cells that creates immunity to influenza A virus, which causes annual seasonal epidemics and ...

Combination drug treatments have become successful at long-term control of HIV infection, but the goal of totally wiping out the virus and curing patients has so far been stymied by HIV's ability to hide out in cells and ...

(Medical Xpress)—A team of researchers at Peking University has developed a new type of vaccine that they claim may allow for a new approach to generating live virus vaccines which could conceivably be adapted to any type ...

In his bedroom, there's a drawer full of his medications—along with CDs of a popular Egyptian Muslim preacher. On the walls of the home are two paintings by his father. They've had a strained relationship. He opens an album ...

Newly released guidelines for the prevention, detection, and management of surgical site infections (SSIs) issued by the American College of Surgeons and the Surgical Infection Society provide a comprehensive set of recommendations ...

A record low number of foodborne salmonella cases were registered in Denmark in 2015. While travel remains the leading cause of salmonella infections, no cases have been attributed to Danish eggs for the first time in the ...

The International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) announced today that The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has published results from The Ring Study, a Phase III clinical trial of IPM's vaginal ring to prevent HIV. ...

Infection

An infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. In an infection, the infecting organism seeks to utilize the host's resources to multiply, usually at the expense of the host. The infecting organism, or pathogen, interferes with the normal functioning of the host and can lead to chronic wounds, gangrene, loss of an infected limb, and even death. The host's response to infection is inflammation. Colloquially, a pathogen is usually considered a microscopic organism though the definition is broader, including parasites, fungi, viruses, prions, and viroids. A symbiosis between parasite and host, whereby the relationship is beneficial for the former but detrimental to the latter, is characterised as parasitism. The branch of medicine that focuses on infections and pathogens is infectious disease. "When infection attacks the body, anti-infective drugs can help turn the tide of battle. Four types of anti-infective drugs exist: antibacterial, antiviral, antitubercular, and antifungal. A secondary infection is an infection that occurs during or following treatment of another already existing primary infection.